Plated plastic articles, made of plated ABS resin (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer), enjoy wide spread use as hubcaps of automobiles, buttons, TV knobs, electromagnetic shielding printer housings and other diverse end products.
While plated ABS resin articles are excellent in gloss, they are insufficient in heat resistance and impact resistance. Heat-resistant polypropylene plated articles are used for hubcaps of automobiles, but they are even worse than plated ABS resin articles in impact resistance.
Stainless steel plates have been used as the rear deck side panels of trucks. Since the material for this use is required to have high heat resistance, high impact resistance, and high flexural strength, plated articles of polyamide resins which are excellent in heat resistance and impact resistance are expected to be useful to replace the steel plates.
Plated glass fiber-reinforced nylon articles are known, but they have poor surface gloss. It has been proposed to etch the surface of polyamide resin molded articles containing an inorganic filler prior to plating as disclosed in JP-A-57-123231, JP-A-63-150348, JP-A-60-96648, and JP-A-61-281149 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). However, the resulting plated articles have low plate adhesion. Additionally the plating bath becomes contaminated by extraction of the inorganic filler by the etching solution.